Customer Reviews

Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

At the outset, I have been a global-warming-as-disaster agnostic. But I have followed the arguments for years and try to read everything that comes out, and I try (but maybe fail) to not "prejudge" if I know something about the authors etc...I also look at reviews with I hope an open mind.

That brings me to The Satanic Gases. The argument is really very simple: The planet warms, partially from human beings, but humans themselves cannot stop what they are doing and in fact have been adapting to this all along. But extreme scenarios get play from a political process that only funds our most lurid problems and a media that exists to sell media (surprise!). In fact, though, future warming is likely to be near the low end of the range, unless almost all scientific models are wrong to the core. This argument is made in very convincing fashion in this book.

What amazes me is that it seems you either agree with these guys, citing the obvious plethora of facts and figures in the book, or you disagree and attack personally. This itself bumps my review of this book up one star.

But, more important--and I hope I am not wrong here--it's beginning to look more and more like Michaels and Balling were in fact the correct prophets about the ultimate (non)-resolution of this issue. They have been screaming this from every available mountaintop (some supplied by industry, others from their University positions--major institutions like ASU and Virginia don't hand out Full Professor from cracker jack boxes) for years now.

I give this book 4.5 stars (rounded to 5)as a result. More evidence: A few months ago Nova/Frontline had a global warming show in which the entire second hour was devoted (without credit) to precisely Michaels' and Balling's proposition: you can't stop it, and you can't even slow it much, so why try? The July Atlantic Monthly is even more telling. A huge piece by Daniel Sarewitz and Roger Pielke concludes 1)The science will never adequately support policy, and 2) We can't do much about it anyway, and 3) We have adapted if we have enough money, so maybe we ought to help poor countries with infrastructure. Pielke was a Democratic staffer for the late (of Southern California) congressman Brown's Science committee.

Hey, those are the same arguments Michaels and Balling make in Satanic Gases, only based upon mountains of data.

It's rare to see (what I used to think) were caterwauling naysayers turn out right, but I am very close to moving off the agnostic fence as a result of The Satanic Gases. It probably doesn't hurt that the book is very well written--I have seen in local papers several Op-Eds by Michaels and he is a very hot, entertaining writer for a scientist, almost like the "Anti-Sagan".

The cleverly titled "Satanic Gases" is a remarkably interesting book. Those of us who follow the greenhouse issue have been peppered with hot rhetoric and ad hominem attacks on the motives and the credibility of the authors. For example, see Ross Gelbspan's book, which makes the preposterous argument that these two authors have somehow convinced the entire nation that global warming isn't a threat, while the 2,500 scientists can't counter them.

But what comes out of The Satanic Gases is far different than boilerplate rhetoric--from either side. It is very highly referenced (so much for the argument that the critics don't publish), comes with the endorsment of the past presdients of the National Academy of Science, the American Physical Society, the past director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and the past director of the Board of Agriculture of the National Research Council.

The argument made has considerable internal consistency--read it for yourself and compare it to others and you may come to the same conclusion. But, moreover, Michaels and Balling provide a neat explanation as to WHY the issue has been overemphasized that breaks new intellectual ground and seems difficult to refute. In addition, the book is surprisingly evenhanded (considering the opposing rhetoric) taking on misconsceptions about this issue whether they are from the right or the left.

That's what makes this book different, and is why you should read it. I've read Stevens and Gelbspan and Gore's new edition (Satanic Gases is currently outselling all of them) and they just aren't as interesting, amusing, factual, or intellectually challenging. This book is a sleeper that is going to have a lot of staying power.

Michaels and Balling offer a refreshing alternative to the alarmist screaming that comes from some over the issue of global warming. Through comprehensive analysis of the data and theory behind the issue, the authors find that climate change from industrial activity won't be the dramatic planet threat many think.

They acknowledge that carbon dioxide levels in the atmophere are increasing. However, they think global temperature will only increase 1.3 decrees Celsius by 2100. They do not think ocean levels will rise enough or fast enough to endanger people. Their findings also allow them to believe that storms may actually decrease in intensity and increased carbon dioxide may encourage plant life.

The Satanic Gases is a fine bit of science presented in a persuasive manner.

Firstly, let me say I did enjoy this book. I am a huge skeptic of the Kyoto Protocol but not only because of the reasons outlined in this book! Geologic history indicates that the world has been warming up more or less since the glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago. The geologic record over the last 500 million years would also suggest that we are in a 'cold period' and there is no time where the earth has a static temperature - it gets hotter and colder over the centuries and eons and in the past, it has generally been hotter. Stating that the temperature in 1900 was 'average' and then getting angry with ourselves when the world rises above or below this 'average' is very short-sighted...

This book dissects a lot of the myths and contadictions that have sprung up over the last decade concerning global warming and its impact - higher deaths, more extreme weather conditions, decreased crop yields, excessively rising sea levels etc. It also briefly discusses the impact of government intervention to try and slow down global warming (e.g. the disintegrating Kyoto Protocol).

However, I was a bit disappointed that the authors didn't step back from the microscopic analysis of papers to paint in the 'big picture' and allow the reader to gain a more coherant overview of why there are many skeptical scientists out there! In fact, from the evidence presented in this book, I am greatly reassured that global warming, despite its name, is clearly not a global phenomenon which is going to have much impact on any country except the US...

The authors focus on small and large descrepencies in papers that have been released over the last 2-3 decades - largely by the US - and comments made by ignorant but influential people - also from the US. Well, thats fine - thats what has created the hysteria over global warming in the first place. But, surely the name 'global warming' implies it should have a global impact?! By the final chapters of the book, this over-emphasis on dissecting the smaller details make one feel too much emphasis has been placed on discreding models and little on the reasons why any scientists felt they ought to question the models to begin with. But, there is a lot of evidence beyond the dissection of small scale climate modelling which could be reassuring - and more interesting - to explain why anyone would want to put global warming in perspective in the first place!

I also felt the book could have been better fleshed out by touching on why we are in this predicament of depending on fossil fuel in the first place. However, as the authors correctly note, where we will be in terms of technology and use of power in 100 years time is at this time, completly unknown. We could all be tapping into quantum energy for all I know! In the end, one can only be reassured (and not by the authors) we are burning through 440 million years of the Earth generating fossil fuels for us in a few short centuries - we will be forced to examine alternative and comparative sources of energy sometime in the next 100 years if not sooner.

In the end, this book is a dry but interesting critique of all the climate modelling and posturing made by the US government in an attempt to rally the world behind a cause. It is very scientific, but arguments are developed logically and explained in a clear fashion that anyone wanting to gain a more balanced point of view about the hysteria surrounding global warming, will be satisfied with this book.

The Satanic Gases is a book that should be read by every none believer in global warming and by every global warming Kool-Aid drinker. The book shows that yes the earth has gotten warmer over the last hundred years. It also shows how people use every abnormal weather occurrence is blamed by global warming including El Niño which has happened for the past 5,000 years. Also how we blame blizzards, floods, draughts, warm temperatures cold temperatures, and anything that's not average.
This book is not an easy read and should be given time to read and digest. The book is well thought out and shows how only one side is ever presented, Especailly the coverage it gets during a hurricane or other natural disaster. It also shows how over the last 50 years hurricanes have decreased and tornados also. It also documents that CO2 levels were higher when the dinosaurs were alive and during the ice age. It also documents how temperatures have changed since the beginning of the world.
Finally he shows the exaggerations of politicians such as Al Gore who make ridicules statements that aren't always backed by science. Also the effects of treaties and protocols would have to prevent global warming and the economic effects they would have. Over all this is a great book on this topic.

Throughout history the vision of apocalyptic crisis continues to attract the multitude.

As good as this book is about the science of "global warming", the part I liked the best talks about the social mechanisms and political incentives that continually imagine and inflate crisis far beyond their true import.

The subject has been well treated before in the classic: "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" by Charles MacKay and in Julian Simon's: "The Ultimate Resource"

Remember the Luddites, Malthus, or the club of Rome (which predicted mass starvation for the 1980's), "global cooling", and innumerable other crises. Unsophisticated crackpots schedule the end of the world within their lifetimes, so their folly is revealed on that day.

It takes real "sophistication" and political motivation (what better example than the UN) to select a menace so difficult to disprove and so far in the future, that we can finally punish those evil greedy capitalists.

Meanwhile, Popocatapetl just erupted in Mexico and spewed forth probably more pollutants in one day than all of humanity can manage in 6 months.

I have eagerly awaited Patrick Michaels' book.

I am very actively involved in the debate on climate change. My specialty is human health.

I can say without reservation that in my field, the overwhelming majority of my colleagues are apalled by the nonesense that has been written about the impact of global warming on human health--asthma, mosquito-borne diseases, and all the rest.

Problem is, we all have priorities. Few of us can justify the time to counter this Orwellian gobbledgook. So the field is left uncontested.

On the other hand, there are people out there who have garnered large funding from government and private interests in order to foster this phoney paradigm. It is in their interests to maintain its momentum, with or without the truth.

The result is that the public are being fed with colossal quantities of pseudo-science, much of it expertly packaged and convincing to honest pepole.

Michaels, of course, has his own angle on all of this. Frankly, I would have wished that he had steered clear of the politics. The substance of his book is erudite and well presented. In my opinion, his account would have been much more persuasive if he had he stuck to his highly readable style and avoided all mention of the politicoes.

Ah well! Whatever the packaging, the substance of this book is solid science. I will value it for its bibliographic references and its logic, not for the other stuff.

[Sadly, perhaps, in this age of mis-information, we may have to adapt this sort of style to compete with the propagandists].

So, I give it 4 stars, and recommend Satanic Gases to anyone who wants to know a bit more about this hot topic.

This book deserves to be read by EVERYONE who professes a true interest in the Global Warming Hypothesis. Yes, that's right, that currently popular THEORY which has been so generally and uncritically accepted that most any contradiction of its dogmas is automatically branded environmental apostasy and corporate sell-out! These two gentlemen have provided us with a welcome antidote to the low-level hysteria usually associated with the currently fashionable model of global climate change, its unctuous hand-wringing and DISASTER-batory self-righteousness. I only wish they had spent more time with detailing a perspective of the interglacial period we now occupy, particularly of modern science's inadequate understanding of glacial periodicity and the shorter variations of climate that have interspersed those warming and cooling cycles. Contemporary thought is ALWAYS far too blind to anything but the narrow parameters of, at most, two or three generations worth of change. Real scientific progress requires such rigor: empirical objectivity, free of bias and prejudgement. The Satanic Gases contributes in its own small way towards that better progress. No, it does not have all the answers, nor is it simply intended as a debunk of "mainstream" consensus. What you will find here are some alternative explanations to many of the half-truths being fobbed off by the mass media as geophysical and atmospheric fact. A most excellent and worthwhile place to start, if you care at all for the truth.

At the outset, I have been a global-warming-as-disaster agnostic. But I have followed the arguments for years and try to read everything that comes out, and I try (but maybe fail) to not "prejudge" if I know something about the authors etc...I also look at reviews with I hope an open mind.

That brings me to The Satanic Gases. The argument is really very simple: The planet warms, partially from human beings, but humans themselves cannot stop what they are doing and in fact have been adapting to this all along. But extreme scenarios get play from a political process that only funds our most lurid problems and a media that exists to sell media (surprise!). In fact, though, future warming is likely to be near the low end of the range, unless almost all scientific models are wrong to the core. This argument is made in very convincing fashion in this book.

What amazes me is that it seems you either agree with these guys, citing the obvious plethora of facts and figures in the book, or you disagree and attack personally. This itself bumps my review of this book up one star.

But, more important--and I hope I am not wrong here--it's beginning to look more and more like Michaels and Balling were in fact the correct prophets about the ultimate (non)-resolution of this issue. They have been screaming this from every available mountaintop (some supplied by industry, others from their University positions--major institutions like ASU and Virginia don't hand out Full Professor from cracker jack boxes) for years now.

I give this book 4.5 stars (rounded to 5)as a result. More evidence: A few months ago Nova/Frontline had a global warming show in which the entire second hour was devoted (without credit) to precisely Michaels' and Balling's proposition: you can't stop it, and you can't even slow it much, so why try? The July Atlantic Monthly is even more telling. A huge piece by Daniel Sarewitz and Roger Pielke concludes 1)The science will never adequately support policy, and 2) We can't do much about it anyway, and 3) We have adapted if we have enough money, so maybe we ought to help poor countries with infrastructure. Pielke was a Democratic staffer for the late (of Southern California) congressman Brown's Science committee.

Hey, those are the same arguments Michaels and Balling make in Satanic Gases, only based upon mountains of data.

It's rare to see (what I used to think) were caterwauling naysayers turn out right, but I am very close to moving off the agnostic fence as a result of The Satanic Gases. It probably doesn't hurt that the book is very well written--I have seen in local papers several Op-Eds by Michaels and he is a very hot, entertaining writer for a scientist, almost like the "Anti-Sagan".

Last week, Rush Limbaugh went on for an hour or so singing the praises of this book and its author. Normally I don't listen to Rush (find him boring) but I also read things like The Nation and I find that some big people on the left--like Christopher Hitchens--are converging on the notion that there is a a big rat lurking in the global warming story, namely that the issue is overblown and both the extreme left and right (i.e. Hitchens and Rush) seem to agree that the policies will cause economic harm for little accomplishment.

So I decided too take a looksee at this book. BTW Amazon did have a great price! I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually fun to read and taught me a lot about the ancillary mysteries, such as tornadoes, jet streams etc that I have been curious about, but all backgrounded against the global warming issue and "how" science gets done.

The bottom line really does seem well-argued. The issue is way overblown by both scientists and the press and--something I did not know--VERY little can be done anyway, even if we tried, and it was Clinton and Gore'scientists, not some right-wing nuts, that showed this.

Just for they hey of it, I checked sales figures seen as this book isn't exactly advertised (despite the funny title). It looks like it's amazons best seller ( I searched under "global warming"), despite being nearly two years old. After I read it I think I know why. I learned a lot and it was fun and it was nice to understand why the political extremes seem to be getting together on this one. I also picked up a lot of fun trivia like how many people get killed by cold air and that winds in hurricanes are going down, not up, according to the UN. I intend to use these for upcoming Christmas party bets. Maybe that cute little enviro-femme will go out with me.

A cool book.